BAC Set to Move Into New Lab Soon

Baltimore Aircoil Co.'s long-awaited move into its new headquarters and research laboratory in Jessup is about a month away.

BAC, which makes industrial cooling and heat transfer equipment, is moving across the street into a 95,000-square-foot building on Montevideo Road that has been under construction since last summer. The company has occupied the building since 1956, said Glenn Babcock, BAC's marketing, communications and training development manager.

"We had the opportunity to build a new structure that allows state-of- the-art technology with Internet cabling and all the things that never existed in 1956," Babcock said. The new laboratory will include "elements of technology that the structure of this [original] building didn't allow us."

The space BAC leaves behind will be developed into warehouse and distribution facilities by Trammell Crow Co., which also built BAC's new headquarters.

The relationship between BAC and Trammell dates to 2003, when BAC shut down a manufacturing plant in Jessup and sold that property to Trammell.

When BAC closed the plant, it transferred 150 of the plant's workers to its Delaware and Illinois operations.

Baltimore Aircoil, a subsidiary of Amsted Industries, has offices in 17 countries.

W.R. Grace Goes to China

W.R. Grace & Co. executives are descending on China this month.

More than half a dozen of them, including Chief Executive Officer Fred Festa, plan to attend the grand opening of the Columbia-based company's technical service center in Beijing on Monday and its new office in Shanghai the next day.

The new space underscores the specialty chemical company's commitment to capture a larger market in China, where Grace established itself in 1986 as the first wholly foreign-owned enterprise allowed to conduct business there. Executives from around the world will be meeting with more than 150 customers.

The Shanghai building will serve as headquarters of Grace China Ltd., which employs more than 150 workers and operates out of four offices in China. The Beijing operation will house laboratories that test cement, concrete and additives and use raw materials from China to customize additive formulations for customers.

Helping run the China operation is James J. Healy, who was appointed president of Grace China in June 2004. Healy joined Grace in August 2000 as vice president and general manager of Asia Pacific, then based in Singapore.

In conjunction with the opening ceremonies, Grace plans to unveil a scholarship program to assist 20 low-income students majoring in chemistry at China East University.

Grace filed for bankruptcy protection in April 2001, citing a surge in asbestos-related lawsuits.

Training Government Employees

Project Masters Inc., a project management and training consulting business in Ellicott City, is one of 50 firms the federal government will work with on a Web-based training initiative for government employees and their partners during the next five years.

The initiative, called USALearning, provides academic, technical, executive and organizational development courses.

USALearning, which has doubled in the past year to serve more than 650,000 participants from 70 agencies, is overseen by the Office of Personnel Management.

OPM expects to spend $225 million or more on the initiative and has tapped dozens of firms to handle different aspects.

The 10-year-old Project Masters firm has worked with government and commercial clients, including the Federal Aviation Administration, McCormick & Co., Lockheed Martin and National Public Radio.